Science Of Motion

19/02/2025

22/01/2025

In Hand Tai Chi
In Tai Chi, the arms and the body always move together. If the arms move separately, the movement fails. The body integrity applies to the rider. We feel many variations in the horse’s contact on the bit with the fingers, but if we respond with the hands and arms, we fail the horse. The horse feels our whole physique, and our body integrity is primordial in managing forces. When we are told to look in the direction we want the horse to go, we are told a gesture that makes us lose the integrity of our body and our capacity to channel the forces in the direction we like to go. We should been told to face the direction we would like the horse to go with our shoulders, sternum, and pelvis, understanding that the horse turns efficiently, bending the thoracic spine, which we influence with our upper thighs. But, if we act with the upper thighs independently of our body, we fail to bend the horse’s thoracic spine. Efficiency demands that the horse feels through our upper thighs, the direction of our whole body tone.

For a year, I worked with Lafayette in hand to rehabilitate him from a fracture of the right hind leg coffin bone. The bone was remodeled with stall rest, but the deep digital and superficial flexor had shrunk, and Lafayette could not place his hind hoof flat on the ground. I restored the proper function of the right hind leg, coordinating Lafayette’s whole physique for greater balance control. Many lesions, including arthritis, result from improper forces loading the structure. The diagnostic tools allowing us to identify the lesion are useful, but the cure relies on our ability to identify and correct the dysfunction stressing the structure. It is not a progressive number of minutes at the walk or trot that rehabilitates a horse; it is the quality of the walk and trot. I walked by Lafayette’s side one step at a time at first to recreate each stride, the body coordination allowing the lift of the trunk between the forelegs, flexe the thoracic spine, and dorsoventral rotation of the pelvis allowing a heel first impact of the right hind legs and a flat contact of the hoof during the stance. The whole body coordination, including the flat contact of the hoff during the stance, recreated stride after stride elasticity of the geep digital and superficial flexor tendon and adequate fetlock dorsiflexion.
It is the coordination of Lafayette whole physique that restored soundness. If I had walked a progressive number of minutes with corrective shoeing, as I was advised, Lafayerre would not have recovered. I had to evolve from linear thinking to lift Lafayette’s trunk between the shoulder blades and ensure the thoracolumbar spine’s flexion and the pelvis’s dorsoventral rotation allowing proper hoof placement. Step after step, I realized that I had to think in three dimensions. I could not create adequate balance control and sound hind legs’ kinematics without channeling the forces forward through Lafayette’s thoracolumbar spine more efficiently. My classical education told me about straightness, but the straightness I needed to refine was dynamics straightness. Maintaining his shoulders in front of his haunches was easy, but I needed Lafayette to channel the forces forward through his thoracolumbar spine in a narrow corridor. At this time, I was unaware that balance was centering the forces around the center of mass. I had a traditional linear concept of balance, which was insufficient. Without knowing it, I channeled the forces above and around Lafayette’s center of mass.
All the work was done in hand. Lafayette was not in shape to carry a rider. No book was talking about this work, not even any scientific study. I adventured in the unknown, and it was a blessing as the dynamic relationship that I explored with Lafayette was different than everything I knew, and I did not try to compare it with anything I learned from my classical education. The vet who helped me with Lafayette’s rehabilitation was supportive but also told me the chances of success were not more than one in ten thousand.
I was alone in the Virginia countryside, walking by Lafayette’s side, animated by the strong desire to help him. I knew the body coordination I needed to create, but I did not have the tools I was familiar with: leg pressure, hand actions, and body movements. We had a tensegrity relation, and I learned to control the lateral shifts of Lafayette’s shoulders and haunches. Once the shoulder had shifted. I could not replace it. I had to halt Lafayette and restart straight. I learned to feel through his body motion, the direction of the forces, and to react before they shifted the shoulders or the haunches sideway. The importance of the frequency was a point that surprised me. If I reacted too fast, I altered our dynamic relation. It was an entirely new world for me. Instead of the gesture, I had to concentrate on the force that the gesture would have suggested. Lafayette was very comfortable in this dynamic relation; energy looked familiar to him. He acted as if I was clearer in my dialogue, as if the absence of gestures allowed him to feel better my nuances in muscle tone.
Lafayette became sound, as you know and we did numerous presentations in hand. A great part of Lafayette’s rehabilitation was intuitive. Biotensegrity is the best explanation so far. Mechanical thinking could not explain the relation Lafayette and I developed during this experience. Even today, reductionists try to mimic what we did, remaining at the stimulus-response level. I always talk about a new dimension, another world, but now, an advanced understanding of the human and equine body function allows us to describe better and explain. Betsy did a similar “Impossible” recovery with her mare suffering from a severe club foot issue. Betsy did it entirely in hand and succeeded beyond what the veterinary world is ready to accept. Betsy asked her farrier to balance the hoof properly, but no corrective shoeing. We try to understand and explain it in our respective fields of expertise.
There is a new world, a world where each of us can do better than through the traditional approach, but there is an important move to make. Tradition is the peer pressure of dead people. Are you ready to move on?
Jean Luc

18/01/2025

Elizabeth posted in Master One and Master One Plus this comment as a follow-up to her video study. Betsy’s comment helps to understand the necessary evolution from traditional thinking. I asked Betsy if I could post her comment on the other courses. Jean Luc
It Is All About Forces, by Elizabeth Uhl, DVM, Ph.D. Dip. ACVP
Working with Jean Luc, I have been very impressed by the depth of his knowledge and his ability to analyze and correct a horse's movement. His experience taught him that quality of movement was improved, and performances were enhanced through correction of how forces were being managed throughout a horse's body. He also found such a focus was very effective in rehabilitating lameness. Such insight could only come from experience as the generalized and overly simplistic body-as-machine model, which implies there is only one right way to perform a movement, does not have the capacity to explain what he was observing or the effectiveness of his approach. In contrast, the biotensegrity model can provide an explanation as it emphasizes the functional anatomy and dynamic complexity of movement. It puts the focus on how forces are transmitted and managed in an individualized whole-body context and provides ways to investigate the complexity. Importantly it provides an explanation for why movements that are visually similar can have dramatically different effects in terms of a horse's performance and soundness.
Unfortunately, the emphasis on quantitative analysis and the inability of the body-as-machine model to capture the dynamic complexity that characterizes movement, has led to misplaced emphasis on what can be measured rather than what is truly important. While easy to recognize, the ease and the dance like quality of beautiful movement that results from optimization of balance and forces, is not something that can be measured using classical biomechanical analysis. Rather than simply being a product of specific limb and joint angles, it is created by HOW forces are managed and optimized throughout the body. While such forces, particularly those occurring in the thoracolumbar spine, currently cannot be measured, they can be felt and influenced by a rider. The SOM approach is about raising awareness of these forces and how to manage them to improve performances and maintain soundness. Biotensegrity provides the understanding of functional anatomy and dynamic movement needed to master this approach.

09/01/2025

Biomechanics Of Lameness
Jean Luc Cornille
James Rooney pioneered the idea that the kinematics abnormality was there first and that it was the repetition of the kinematics abnormality that caused the lesion. . "The gait abnormality created by a specific lesion is the gait abnormality that causes the lesion." Rooney's findings paved the way for the ability to correct the gait abnormality before it becomes a lesion. Instead, veterinary medicine elected to wait for the lesion focusing on greater diagnostic tools. During a recent conference a statement was made, "If the therapy does not work, it is because the diagnosis is not precise enough." The financial purpose of the statement is easy to understand as the author is involved in creating a better diagnostic tool. There is no doubt that greater diagnostic tools could eventually prevent the lesion. For instance, before becoming apparent in the cartilage, arthritis commences with microfracture or other lesion in the subchondral bone. However, we are far from routine MRI as a preventing tool for early detection of arthritis. Genetics is a field of research that promises prevention but meanwhile, horses move crooked and gait abnormalities create lesions. The kinematics abnormality causing the lesion can be corrected. "The horse's athletic ability is the result of good genetics and training interaction." (Eric Barrey, 2002) Whatever signs of progress are made in diagnosis or in genetics, the quality of the training remains the difference between lameness and soundness. Rooney's legacy is that instead of being the cause of lameness as it is usually the case, the training can become the source of soundness.

Every training techniques promise to educate the horse's physique but in reality, they submit the horse's physique to stereotypes. Formulas are repeated from one generation to the next without a sound understanding of the underlying biomechanics factors. The engagement of the hind legs, for instance, is the base of all riding and training techniques. The general belief is that the hind leg engages under the belly and propels the horse body upward as soon as ground contact. This is not the reality. The alighting hind leg produces first a decelerating action resisting gravity and inertia forces. The propulsive activity commences after the peak vertical when the hind leg is vertical under the croup. This biomechanical reality fundamentally changes all the principles of riding and training.

Rooney talks about "The abnormal illumining the normal." By studying the kinematics abnormality causing suspensory damages, bow tendons, arthritis, and other issues, the abnormal is effectively redefining the normal. Many training techniques and judging standards, which are regarded as the norm, are indeed, pathomechanics; they are kinematics abnormalities leading to pathological changes and therefore injuries. For instance, any trot without suspension such as the way working trot is defined, is a gait abnormality. The forelegs are designed to propel the body upward. "In horses, and most other mammalian quadrupeds, 57% of the vertical impulse is applied through the thoracic limbs, and only 43% through the hind limbs." (H. W. Merkens, H. C. Schamhardt,G. J. van Osch, A. J. van den Bogert, 1993). Vaulting the bodyweight from one front limb over the other as it is rewarded in dressage, hunter jumper and western pleasure rings, is a kinematics abnormality leading to lameness.

The forelegs' upward propulsive activity results for a great part from an elastic strain energy stored in long tendons and aponeurosis. The distal limb of the horse has been shown to function like a pogo stick, storing and returning energy in long, spring-like tendons throughout the gait cycle (Biewener, 1998 ; Wilson et al., 2001 ).

The horse is a large animal capable of running faster and longer than most of his predators. Nature allowed this survival capacity creating long tendons and aponeurosis as it cost less energy to produce locomotion through elastic recoil of long tendons and aponeurosis than shortening and lengthening of muscle fibers "The elastic energy stored in and recovered from tendons during cyclical locomotion can reduce the metabolic cost of locomotion." (Cavagna et al., 1977 ; Alexander, 1988 ; Roberts et al., 1997 ).

Tendons store energy as they elongate and restitute the energy as they return to their normal length. Greater efficiency is achieved when Please click link to read on https://www.scienceofmotion.com/biomechanics_of_lameness.html

08/01/2025

More and more, knowledge suggests that our real job as a rider is to assist the horse's mental processing and body function. The horse's physique does much more than we have been trained to believe. Our directives hamper the horse more often than help. We need to master our physique to better use our brains. From the closed kinematics chain to receptors that bypass nerve input and activate muscle in response to vibration, It is clear today that our equitation needs to evolve into a respectful partnership. Our ancestors were not aware of the complexity and willingness of the horse's mental processing and body function. Numerous directives, principles, and aids hamper, in fact, the horse's ability to perform soundly and at his utmost potential. Our understanding of the performance's athletic demand assists the horse's mental processing and keeps it on track. We no longer do it using gross muscular action; we manage forces, vibrations, oscillations, and frequency using subtle nuances of our whole physique. We no longer bend the thoracic spine with pressure on our upper thighs and calves. We face the curve and maintain our integrity. We feel the horse pushing on our outside or inside upper thigh or calf, and we don't push back but instead resist just enough to maintain our integrity. The horse made adjustments until he found harmony with us. We are the reference, and the horse willingly synchronizes his body with our physique. If we push back with our upper thigh, we return to the submission approach, and the horse protects himself from us. It might take a few strides for the horse to figure, and during these difficult strides, we keep the dialogue open if we act as the reference and let the horse join us. Jean Luc

06/01/2025

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01/01/2025

Stamp collecting
“Physics is the only science; all else is stamp collecting.” (Ernest Rutherford)
The statement is a little absolute and arrogant but it underlines an important point. There is always a fundamental problem engendering secondary issues. Focusing on the secondary issues does not resolve the fundamental problem.

Riding techniques as well as therapies concentrate on secondary issues instead of identifying and correcting the root cause, which is the fundamental problem. For instance, rushing a horse forward is not going to create forward movement. In respect of equine biomechanics, forward movement is not how much the body moves forward but instead, how well the thrust generated by the hind legs is efficiently converted forward through the spine, into horizontal forces, forward movement, and vertical forces, balance control. The idea that urging the horse forward is going to create forward movement is at the level of stamp collecting.

A concept as simple as the horse natural frequency raises pertinent questions. “Our entire biological system the brain and the earth itself work on the same frequencies.” (Nikola telsa) Back muscles create speed stiffening the thoracolumbar spine. Rushing the horse at a cadence exceeding the horse’s natural frequency, stiffens the back muscles, altering their precise orchestration and therefore, forwardness and balance control. Down to microscopic level, the horse frequency is a fundamental component of efficiency and soundness. “Because the muscle is composed of both muscle fibers and tendinous materials, all of these structures must be collectively ‘tuned’ to the spring properties for the muscle-tendon system to store and recover elastic strain energy during locomotion.” (Paul C. LaStayo, PT, PhD. John M. Woolf, PT, MS, ATC. Michael D. Lewek, PT. Lynn Snyde-Mackler, PT, ScD. Trugo Relch, BS. Stan L. Lindstedt, PhD. Eccentric Muscle Contractions: Their contribution to injury, prevention, rehabilitation, and sport. Journal of Orthopaedic & sports physical therapy. 557-571. Volume 33, NUMBER 10, October 2003)

Injecting the hocks provides transient relief but does not correct the kinematics abnormality stressing the hock on a first place. Repeated injections are not harmless, over a period of time, Hyaluronic acid and synovial fluid undergoes a chemical transformation altering the efficiency of the synovial fluid. For decades, the general consensus has been that hock problems were the root cause of back issues. Further understanding of the whole mechanism suggested that at the contrary, thoracolumbar dysfunction is the root cause of hock problems. By correcting the thoracolumbar dysfunction, it is possible to correct the kinematics abnormality inducing excessive stress on the hock. In fact, the kinematics abnormality causing hack damage will never be corrected without identifying and correcting the thoracolumbar dysfunction that is the source of the problem. The work has to be done in correlation with proper hoof balance, as there are always two set of forces involved, the forces going up from the hoof onto the legs and the forces going down from the back onto the hoof.

Identifying the fundamental problem evolves with the advance of scientific knowledge. Quite often, what appeared as fundamental years ago, is secondary in the light of new knowledge. Inverted dynamics, for instance, was a progress allowing to understand equine gaits and performances at a deeper level than kinematics analysis. Forward dynamics is the measurement of movement through the production of force. Inverted dynamics is a mathematical calculation allowing to measure force from the amplitude of movement. Inverted dynamics permitted identifying phenomenon that were not observed through kinematics analysis even when coupled with plate form measurements. For instance, inverted dynamics demonstrated that, “A visually identical hind limb extension in late stance may be accomplished by only hip extensor muscles, only knee extensor muscles or any combination of these.” (Liduin S. Meershoek and Anton J. van den Bogert. Mechanical Analysis of Locomotion.) The knowledge is directly applied in the science of motion, when we explain that efficiency in locomotion demands deep involvement of the horse mental processing. It is not about stimulating muscles that create movements. It is instead about guiding the horse’s brain toward the most efficient coordination of the muscular system. The horse’s brain process the most efficient coordination of the physique as long as the education is encouraging the horse’s brain to explore efficiency, which is more movement for less muscular work. The horse is designed to reduce the metabolic cost of locomotion and, when encourage to do so, the horse intrinsically as well as rationally looks for the most efficient way to use his physique.

In terms of the practical application for therapy inverted dynamics calculations open new perspectives. The study “Mechanical Analysis of Locomotion”, talks about stifle extension but the principle applies to many other muscles and movements. Even if one muscle is injured, the horse can functions using other muscles and can be encouraged to do so. The rider’s knowledge is necessary as the horse will initially elect to protect a damaged muscle and quite often needs to be guided toward using another muscle. This can be done through the science of motion.

“The separate analysis of either movements or forces, kinematics or kinetics respectively, can enhance our understanding of equine gaits. However, an even more powerful method is to analyze movements and forces simultaneously using Newton’s laws of dynamics.” (Anton van den Bogert and all, Mechanical analysis of locomotion). Models are often used in research, but even at this advanced level of research, yesterday’s fundamental looks like stamp collecting in respect of today’s fundamental. “These more sophisticated dynamic optimization models, as opposed to static optimizations that do not consider muscle properties, have not been used other than in research, presumably because more complicated calculations are required. However, they will result in more realistic estimates of muscle force.” (Mechanical analysis of locomotion)

The practical application questions every dressage formulas. One can believe in driving the horse onto the bit, long and low, side reins, as long as one does not consider muscles properties. “The discovery of how things work is intrinsically rewarding, and developing the practical applications of discoveries is no less so.” (Thomas W. Clark) The development of greater knowledge, better tools, new findings demand refinements, changes, or even discarding previously held theories and concepts. “The result is excitement and exhilaration in open inquiry.” (Gerald Larue) There is an infinite pleasure in further understanding how the horse physique and mind effectively functions. The initial move is not very difficult. It is about regarding progresses as an opportunity to better ride and train and teach, instead of a challenge to one’s ego.

Jean Luc Cornille https://www.scienceofmotion.com/documents/mechno_24_stamp_collecting.html

30/12/2024

Jan 2025 New course's start. View all of the courses Jean Luc and Science Of Motion offers here: https://www.scienceofmotion.com/documents/science_of_motion_25_courses.html

29/12/2024

Sometime, I watch kids, at the gate of the hunter show ring, waiting on a horse standing still. They talk with others or watch their cellular phone. The horse may stay standing still for five and sometime even ten minutes and then, enters the ring and in a matter of seconds, passes from standing still half way sleeping to executing a jumping course. There is no concept of athleticism, no understanding of the muscular work required by athletic performances, there is no knowledge and as always when knowledge lacks, there is no respect. Whatever the performance is a jumping course, a dressage test or any other athletic activity, it is about the subtle orchestration of a complex biological mechanism. A horse is an athlete and needs to be treated and educated and maintained as an athlete.



The benefits of mechanical stresses (exercise) are involved at all levels of the horse’s structural hierarchy. For instance, skeletal muscles possess two main types of monocarboxylate transporters, MCT 1, which facilitates the extraction of lactate from extracellular fluid, and MCT 4 that facilitates the next efflux of lactate. Lactate is the metabolic fuel of muscles, but excessive accumulation of lactate poisons the muscle. Equine performances can be improved when the glycolytic muscle enhances its ability to remove lactate from within contracting cells. This is significant because intracellular lactate accumulation does have a negative effect on muscle acidosis and fatigue process. By contrast, enhanced rates of lactate removal are associated with a slowing of muscle fatigue and improved performance. “What is important is that these characteristics are enhanced with appropriated training.” (Michael I. Linger, Lactate: metabolic fuel or poison for racehorses? 2011)



Traditionally, anaerobic work is associated to intense physical activity. The concept is very well known from three-day event riders as it is part of the horse’s conditioning. However, the metabolism of horses that are not fit resorts to anaerobic energy earlier than traditionally expected. Some breeds also are prone to anaerobic work earlier than others. A study completes on Andalusian horses estimated that, “The oxygen supply to the active muscles in Andalusian horses seem to be limited at velocities higher than 7meters per second” (A. Munoz, R. Santisteban, M. D. Rubio, C. Riber, E. I. Agüera, F. M. Castejon. Locomotor response to exercise in relation to plasma lactate accumulation and heart rate in Andalusian and Anglo-Arabian horses. 1999). 420 meters per minute is not fast at all. For reference, the time usually allowed during a jumping course is traditionally based on a speed of 450 meters per minute. The study does not discredit the breed. The point is simply emphasizing the fact that efflux and extraction of lactate within muscles is not exclusively a problem of high speed.



Any athletic activity, including dressage and even trial riding, can easily create situations where efflux and extraction of lactate are feeding the muscles. Efflux of lactate is not the problem; the problem is proper extraction. When MCT 1 monocarboxylate transporters fail proper extraction of lactate from contracting cells, soreness occurs as muscles are basically poisoned. Michael Linger emphasizes the need for “appropriated training”. Whatever the specialty, a horse, including a dressage horse, should be under a fitness conditioning program. A dressage horse does not need fast canter work like a three-day event horse, but long and slow trotting as well as slow canter work. Each horse coming at the center for performance, is placed on a conditioning program. It is very well known that once they are used to one type of exercise, muscles no longer develop. Different activities are necessary. The problem with different activities, is that they can stimulates transient muscle soreness. If one hikes regularly up and down hills, one is not at risk of muscular soreness. By contrast, if one hikes up and down hill without progressive training, one will experience great muscle soreness the day after. Walking downhill, one’s leading leg resists attraction of gravity pulling one’s body toward the bottom of the hill. Knee extensor muscles work eccentrically, which is a powerful type of muscle contraction. Eccentric contractions are often referred to as “high power contractions.” During normal locomotion, 50% of the horse’s muscles work eccentrically at one moment or the other of the stride. A trial horse used to flat trial will experience muscle soreness after a walk up and down hill or unstable footing.



Whatever the specialty, equine activities are athletic performances that have to be approached as athletic achievements. Straightening the horse between a pole and the wall is a primitive form of training that exploits the horse talent but let the horse athletically unprepared for the physical demand of the move. This is just an example. Many training techniques only focus on appearances without understanding the underlying biomechanics factors. Real education is about developing and coordinating efficiently the horse for the athletic demand of the move.



Respecting the horse as an athlete should be the fundamental principle of equine athletic training but it is not. Our ancestors were limited by available scientific knowledge and interpreted their feeling in respect of their logic. The picture illustrates an experiment where we recorded vertical forces created by the hind and front limbs and vertebral column mechanism. Knowing through previous experiments that the horse thoracolumbar spine does have a very limited range of motion in the dorso-ventral direction, it is easy to understand that the considerable amount of vertical forces recorded by the sensors and illustrated by the elevation of the dots on the computer screen, are created by the hind and front legs. The two sensors placed under the rider’s seat were the ones recording the greatest amount of vertical forces. The rider is seat exactly where vertical forces created by the hind and front legs meet. Our ancestors believed that the large amplitude of forces moving their back were the movements of the horse’s vertebral column. Based on this belief, they advised following the movements relaxing the rider’s back muscles. This was a misinterpretation creating exactly the opposite effect. The main function of the back muscles is precisely resisting movements that would exceed the thoracolumbar spine possible range of motion.



Harmony between the rider’s back and the horse back cannot be created increasing the range of movement of the rider’s vertebral column but at the contrary reducing the movements induced on the rider’s back by the horse’s hind and front legs, to an amplitude of movement that does not exceed the horse thoracolumbar spine possible range of motion. Leo Jeffcott measured the amplitude of thoracolumbar spine in the dorso-ventral direction and found that the total range of movement was extremely limited, 53,1mm which is about two inches and a quarter.



Harmony cannot be created through relaxation of the rider’s back but at the contrary through variations in muscle tone. It is about reducing forces through controlled movements. Every riding and training techniques use this type of phrases but when they are based on a range of motion of the rider’s vertebral column exceeding the possible range of motion of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine, the phrase is meaningless and the horse has to protect his thoracolumbar structure stiffening the surrounding muscles. Basically, the more relaxed the rider’s vertebral column, the stiffer the horse’s thoracolumbar spine.



Before jumping on your key board commenting that stiffening of the back does not happen if the horse is barefoot or the saddle is properly fitted, remember the fundamental point of this series, living organisms are constructed from tiers of systems within a system within a system. Soundness and excellence of the performance relies on proper coordination of many systems. Proper hoof balance and proper fitting of the saddle are only elements of numerous systems. They are necessary but they are not enough. Respect for the horse is not about reducing the understanding of the horse’s physique to one system or belief. Respect for the horse is at the contrary furthering knowledge and our capacity of adapting our riding and training techniques to new knowledge. Jean Luc Cornille
https://www.scienceofmotion.com/documents/mechanoresponsiveness_pt_4.html